ARG Charlotte

Hello again duelists! This time I’ll be doing a tournament report on the most recent ARGCS in Charlotte but before I start let me talk about the deck I ran and why I ran it. At YCS Atlanta I ran Harpies, not because I thought it was the best deck, but because I wasn’t able to borrow a Fire Fist deck. Before the event, while I was testing, it became very apparent that Harpies would not hold up over the 11 round event and I resigned myself to hoping I would draw extremely well all day. It didn’t turn out that way and by round 7 I found myself out of the tournament.

Based on the results of YCS Atlanta and ARGCS Nashville it seemed fire was the top deck with water seeing resurgence in play. I decided that the best deck for the expected 4-Axis Fire Fist deck was 3.5-Axis because of the more explosive opening turns as well as being able to grind like the 4-Axis. I had very little testing with either version and opted to go with a pretty standard list with a few changes to make 3.5-Axis more like the more consistent 4-Axis. Here’s the list.

As you can see many of this needs little explanation. I decided to play the Thunder King Rai-Oh and the 3rd Coach Soldier Wolfbark many 3.5-Axis Fire Fist decks choose to omit. The reason for this is I wanted to be able to compete in the grind game vs the Fire Fist mirror match. The 3rd [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd] was mostly for the Prophecy matchup and the 3.5-Axis matchup, I wanted to have an answer to their first turn spirit play so I would be able to play the actual game. The idea behind Fire Formation Tensen was after the spirit combo you could use rooster to set up a Tensen that would let Rooster live in order to turn that Tensen into a Fire Formation - Gyokku. That being said, Tensen was easily the worst card in the deck and never made it to a game 2 because it immediately went into my side deck. The last card I wanted to talk about in the main deck was the 2 Mind Crush. This was the best decision I made and lead to a few easy victories throughout the day. Everyone already knows how good Mind Crush is against the Prophecy matchup but against the Mermail matchup hitting an [ccProd]Mermail Abyssteus[/ccProd] or [ccProd]Mermail Abyssmegalo[/ccProd] could be a huge shift in momentum that could turn the game in your favor. Opening Mind Crush against Fire Fist and calling an early Tenki or [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd] lets you see their whole hand and easily play around their cards for the rest of the game. Now on to the matches.

Round 1- Hieratic Rulers 2-0

Game 1- I lose the die roll and he opens [ccProd]Hieratic Dragon of Eset[/ccProd] tribute for [ccProd]Hieratic Dragon of Su[/ccProd] and makes an [ccProd]Constellar Ptolemy M7[/ccProd] adding a Su back to his hand and sets a few backrows before passing his turn. I play Gyokku before activating Tenki to get Fire Fist Bear to take down the M7 and after setting multiple backrows I’m able to stop all his pushes and win easily from there.

Game 2- This game he doesn’t open too strongly on turn 1 and just sets a few traps and passes. I open with 3 [ccProd]Black Horn of Heaven[/ccProd] and answer every [ccProd]Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit[/ccProd] so he can’t play [ccProd]A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon[/ccProd] and take the game in a few turns.

Round 2- Harpies 2-0

Game 1- After playing the deck for so long I knew Harpies had to draw [ccProd]Harpies' Hunting Ground[/ccProd] and hope the Fire Fist deck didn’t have an answer in order to win. I Veiler his [ccProd]Harpie Channeler[/ccProd] late in the game to seal it.

Game 2- This game went much better for him as he’s able to resolve a first turn [ccProd]Hysteric Sign[/ccProd]. I don’t set any backrows and instead set up for a turn 2 Vulcan the Divine on his [ccProd]Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack[/ccProd] he’s sure to make. The same turn I play Tensu with Fire Fist Bear to get Gyokkou which forces him to party early and eventually he runs out of plays.

Round 3- Water 2-1

Game 1- The first game all I day I open the Spirit Combo. On his turn he only sets 3 backrows and pass. I start with 2 Gyokkou on 2 of his sets with a [ccProd]Mystical Space Typhoon[/ccProd] for the last one which turns out to be a salvage. I then Tensu summon 2 guys and attack with all the monsters for game.

Game 2- He starts off turn 1 Dracossack among other monsters and I put up a fruitless fight as he takes this game rather easily.

Game 3- I open with Thunder King Rai-Oh, Mind Crush, and [ccProd]Dimensional Fissure[/ccProd]. He doesn’t have an MST for the first couple turns and when he does draw 1 his MST I have Mind Crush for his 2 Abyssteus.

Round 4- 4-Axis Jordan Winters 0-2

Game 1- During this game I realized I have not played any Fire Fist mirror matches and will probably lose to most good Fire Fist players with more experience. I’m able to get the situation down to him having Tiger King, Bear and face down backrows with a Wolfbark and 1 other card in hand with around 6000 life. I draw to a face-up Tensu with 2 Wolfbark and a freshly drawn [ccProd]Solemn Warning[/ccProd] while at 700 life. I realize that I have no way to not lose to [ccProd]Gagaga Cowboy[/ccProd] so I know I have to go for game. After some math I get excited thinking I see a play for game. I go summon Wolfbark activate effect to get Bear then I summon a 2nd Wolfbark and try to activate its effect to get Gorilla but Jordan politely informs me that Wolfbark is a once per turn effect. I clear his board and pass with a set Warning knowing I lose to a Cowboy. In this particular game it didn’t matter but this is a prime example why you should always not assume you know what cards do and actually read them, inexperience could easily lose you games.

Game 2- After a long back and forth battle of Bears and Wolfbarks he manages to use [ccProd]Memory of an Adversary[/ccProd] on my Bear which eventually lets him have 1 more play than me and brings the duel into his favor.

Round 5- Geargia 2-1

Game 1- He draws a really bad hand where he has to a summon a [ccProd]Geargiaccelerator[/ccProd] to attack over my Book of Moon’d Rooster. After I work through his traps, he has no monsters to make any sort of comeback.

Game 2- This game lasts a total of 3 turns where he plays [ccProd]Geargiagear[/ccProd] and has [ccProd]Seven Tools of the Bandit[/ccProd] for my Black Horn of Heaven and deals well over 8000 that turn.

Game 3- I open with Fire Formation - Tenki with a Forbidden Lance which any Geargia player knows is a devastating combination against them. He eventually runs out of resources and his one synchro summon gets hit with a Black Horn of Heaven.

Round 6- Evilswarm 2-0

Game 1- Fire Fist has a very each matchup against Evilswarm and this was probably my easiest match of the day. This game gets to a point where his only hope is to Exciton Knight me but I have the Effect Veiler to wrap the game up.

Game 2- This game goes very much like the first one where he overlays into Exciton Knight only to be met with a Solemn Warning. He scoops immediately after even though he still had a [ccProd]Dimensional Prison[/ccProd] to my Tiger King and double Effect Veiler while he was still high in life points.

Round 7- 4-Axis Jono 0-2

This one was a feature match so there’s not much to write about. Here’s the link:

Round 8- Bujin 2-0

Game 1- I opened pretty poorly this game with a Spirit, Tensu and Wolfbark among traps. Somehow I’m able to survive long enough to draw another monster and I get over his [ccProd]Bujin Yamato[/ccProd]. He Duality’s for [ccProd]Bujin Mikazuchi[/ccProd] and when I Mind Crush it he has 2 of them and that ends the game.

Game 2- I open much better this game and at some point I have a face up [ccProd]Light-Imprisoning Mirror[/ccProd] so my Bears are able to take out his Yamatos while netting me more Tenki. It goes back and forth for a while as we both draw plenty of backrow and he eventually top decks a Bujincarnation while I’m at 700 and he attempts to make Cowboy only to be hit with a Fiendish Chain. Neither of us realize that [ccProd]Bujincarnation[/ccProd] makes it so only Beast, Beast-Warrior or Winged-Beast monsters could be summoned this turn until his friend said something after the game is finished.

Round 9- Water 2-1

Game 1- He goes first and opens with Dracossack among other monsters and I’m not able to do much and he’s able to win on the 2nd turn.

Game 2- This game goes much better for me as I open with Thunder King Rai-Oh. His plays are limited due to Thunder King and any push he can make I easily answer because he’s not netting any additional searches. Eventually an Abyss Dweller joins the Thunder King to prevent all of his plays.

Game 3- The game comes to a point where he has a very important [ccProd]Abyss-sphere[/ccProd] when I’m attacking with a Bear and I summon Banisher in Main Phase 2. He’s able to summon [ccProd]Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls[/ccProd] but he’s forced to attack my Bear so he won’t lose to an XYZ summon. On the following turn I topdeck Dimensional Fissure and he runs out of Water monsters for Tidal which was the last hope he had.

Top 16- Dirk Wagner 2-1

Game 1- I go first and set 2 traps. He plays Tenki to search Gorilla and I play Mind Crush calling Gorilla. Since I see his whole hand I’m able to play around everything he has and take this game with little trouble.

Game 2- I’m drawing a blank on this game but I think I go for a Spirit combo backed with a Lance against his 2 backrows but he plays Effect Veiler and from there the momentum is entirely in his favor.

Game3- I open the Spirit combo but get hit with an Effect Veiler. This game was very back and forth for a while but the deciding play was when he played [ccProd]Full House[/ccProd], while I have a Thunder King on board, on my Tensu, his Tenki, 2 of my face-downs and 1 face-down of his own. I chain MST to one of his 2 face downs and wind up hitting Tensu. His last in card hand was Bear but without a Fire Formation he can’t deal with the Thunder King along with the Wolfbark I have in my hand and I take control of the game shortly.

After this tournament I know with certainty that 4-Axis was the better version of Fire Fist. I feel like by playing 3.5 I didn’t give myself the best chance to win but regardless I was happy with how I did considering the limited experience I had with the deck. I lost to some very good players as all 3 of my losses throughout the finished in the top 8. As always, thanks for reading and any questions or comments post down below and I’ll be sure to respond. This weekend there's a 1K in 1 Day in Akron, Ohio! Check out the details by clicking the picture below!